10 June 2013

A couple of weeks ago, I mentioned that one of my favorite things in May was discovering how to make mashed potatoes in a stand mixer. It’s becoming one of my favorite things in June, too (I’mma make mashed potatoes tonight!). I promised that I share a recipe soon, and, guess what. Today is the day!

It really couldn’t be simpler. Cut red potatoes into quarters (eighths if they’re huge), boil them until soft, drain, mash them in your mixer for a few minutes, and add just enough butter, milk, salt, and pepper to make them delicious. Boom. Done.

Then boiled, and “mashed” with the whisk attachment on my stand mixer:

(Yes, I am STILL cooking in terrible, nearly-dark light. Yes, it gets dark at 9PM or something like that nowadays. Welcome to my life!)

While the potatoes were boiling, I roasted the jalapeño in the toaster oven under the broiler setting, turning every few minutes, until they were browned and blistered. I could have fire-roasted them over the stovetop flame (like I did here) but, well, I was also boiling the potatoes and that’s just too much fire for me to manage at once.

After I peeled and de-seeded the jalapeños, I was really tempted to just dice them up and toss them in the already-mashed potatoes. But I knew they’d be better if I sucked it up and followed Mary Ellen’s lead. So, I busted out the mini food processor and pureed the jalapeños with a tablespoon of butter and a quarter-cup of milk:

Okay, so clearly, I was only halfway-following Mary Ellen’s lead, as I didn’t have any heavy cream and was trying to fake it by mixing butter and milk. And then I took a terrible photo of it. Whatever.

Oh well. I dumped it all in with the pre-mashed potatoes and added one more tablespoon of butter, another quarter-cup of milk, a quarter-cup of low-fat sour cream, a handful of shredded cheese (I used Mexican blend), and salt and pepper to taste. After mixing and mashing...

I was left with the creamiest, smoothest, and yes, slightly-greenish-tinged potatoes I’ve ever made. Because the mixer whips them enough to break down the starches in the potatoes, I didn’t need to add as much of the high-fat ingredients to make them creamy. And that’s a good thing, because I wasn’t burning nearly as many calories as when I had to mash by hand. Thank you, stand mixer.

And thank YOU, roasted jalapeñoes! I really can’t emphasize enough how tasty these were. I’m a mashed potato lover, so I like ‘em plain just fine. But the smoky undertones of the jalapeño? To die for. And I am so glad I went ahead and pureed the jalapeñoes, so there were no chunks of pepper in my perfectly smooth potatoes. Totally worth the effort to roast the peppers in the oven, peel them, and puree them in the food processor.

Topped with chives, delish!

Only downside is that they take more time to make than plain mashed potatoes. But these are my new favorite go-to for when Mr. P’s manning the grill and I can devote my full attention to a side dish. Hope you love them as much as I do!

This week’s Monday Meal Plan is about as boring as it gets, but to my credit, I planned it that way so I don’t have to cook most of it. My busy work week coincides with Mr. P’s summer break, so here’s what he’ll be “helping me with”* in the kitchen this week:

1 comments:

OH dear girl, how on earth did you mash potatoes previously? By Hand??? (she asks rhetorically shaking her head in disbelief). So glad you are using your mixer now! You have to ask Aunt Linda for her mashed spud recipe that everyone goes crazy for at the holidays. It's quite tasty. Mild, not spicy and goes with just about any dish you can create.I'm going to have to give roasting pepper a try after you mentioned how yummy they turned out. Thanks for the ideas!

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I’m a real-life red-headed stepchild, recently transplanted from Nashville, TN to St. Louis, MO, with my husband, Mr. P. Here you can read about my many projects as a real-life scientist pretending to be a designer in my spare time.